Joseph T. Burns, of the Buffalo suburb of Amherst, is a Central New York native and Republican election lawyer who has represented candidates and party committees throughout New York state. In the redistricting case currently before the New York State Court of Appeals, he filed an amicus curiae brief on behalf of the Lawyers Democracy Fund in support of keeping the existing Congressional district map.
Almost a decade ago, the voters of New York, in a referendum, approved an amendment to the state constitution reforming the state’s redistricting process and prohibiting partisan gerrymandering in the drawing of state legislative and Congressional districts. Support for this historic redistricting reform amendment came from organizations across the political spectrum, and voters in the “reddest” and “bluest” corners of New York voted in favor of its passage.
In voting for this amendment, the people of New York approved the strongest prohibition on partisan gerrymandering found in any state constitution in the country. An effort to weaken this ban on gerrymandering in a 2021 referendum was soundly defeated by New York voters. The people of New York had spoken: the partisan gerrymandering of our Congressional and state legislative districts was done, forever.
New York’s ban on partisan gerrymandering was put to the test in 2022 after the state Legislature approved and Gov. Kathy Hochul signed into law a redistricting plan so egregiously partisan that critics cheekily named it the “Hochulmander.” After months of legal wrangling, the Court of Appeals — New York’s highest court — found that the “Hochulmander” violated the state constitution and, therefore, must be thrown out.
In place of the “Hochulmander,” the courts ordered a map drawn by an independent, nonpolitical academic from Pennsylvania’s Carnegie Mellon University to be used. This new map was praised by people and organizations from across the political spectrum and resulted in New…
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